As the process technology node continues to shrink, there is a corresponding reduction in the tolerable maximum power supply voltage for devices made at that node. For example, for transistors supported by a fully depleted semiconductor on insulator (SOI) substrate at the 28 nm process technology node, the tolerable maximum supply voltage for a 28 Å device at this node is 1.8V.
There is a need in the art for a power supply voltage detector circuit that is operable to detect over a wide range of supply voltages, for example, over a range of voltages from 1.65V to 3.6V which includes the conventionally used integrated circuit power supply voltages, without introducing any reliability issue to any device. The use of such a stress tolerable power supply voltage detector circuit advantageously does not impose constraints on the power on reset sequence for the various circuits included in a System on Chip (SoC) which would otherwise be needed to save devices from experiencing an overvoltage stress.